I know it’s been said before, but I can’t stress this one enough-
PEANUT BUTTER!!!
my dog loves it, and I love watching him eat it. Really is a win-win situation.
jb
This wasn’t my cat, and I haven’t had occasion to try this again so I don’t know if it’s more or less universal or just something about this cat. But…
I took a long tube sock and tied it around the cat’s waist. Not tightly at all; just enough to keep it in place.
The cat seemed unable to walk; after two or three steps he’d fall over on his side. I would see his hips start to fall first, and they seemed to drag the rest of his body with them. The cat would lay there puzzled, get up, and have the same thing happen again. And again. And again, until I took pity on the thing and untied the sock.
In my college days, I babysat for two friends of mine who also had two cats. One of them would hide under the bed all day long, so I became pretty good friends with the other, since a 3 month old baby isn’t a great conversationalist.
I’d pick Connor (the cat, not the baby) up by the ‘armpits’ and swing him side to side like a pendulum. The look on his face was priceless.
However, probably the best ‘trick’ I did on a cat backfired on me. My friends had recently bought a ready-to-assemble bookcase, and still had the box lying around - tall, wide, very narrow. Connor crawled into it, and I tipped it up at an angle to look in. He lazily looked back out at me and curled up at the bottom of the box.
This isn’t quite fun enough, I decided, so I shook him out of the box and rubbed a catnip-stuffed mouse on his nose, then stuffed him back in the box. I tipped it back up (almost a 90 degree angle; this is a big box) and looked in. He looked back up at me, and saw the catnip mouse still in my hand. His claws came out; he climbed up the cardboard about four feet before I got nervous and backed away.
However, by backing away, I also let go of the box, which came toppling down. Connor shot out of it when it hit the ground, picked up the catnip mouse that I dropped in surprise, and skidded across the wood floor into the closet.
I closed the closet door for the next few hours.
Pixel, our dalmatian, LOOOOOVES microwave popcorn - she recognizes the sound of the package being unwrapped and she’ll sit in front of the microwave with strings of drool running from her mouth. Hubby likes to taunt her when she’s on the porch looking in thru the sliding door. He’ll toss popcorn at her, and watch her frustration when she can’t get it. Eventually, he’ll let her in and she manages to find every piece he tossed at her.
Bernie, our border collie mutt, is lazy to the extreme. She likes microwave popcorn also, but if you toss it outside the radius of her snout where she happens to be crashed, she’ll let Pixel eat it. She’ll also TRY to catch a piece in mid flight, opening and closing her mouth before the popcorn is within reach.
They’re both goobers!!